A Movie Is the Muse for Jay-Z's Next Album

A Movie Is the Muse for Jay-Z's Next Album

One of my problems with the last Jay-Z album, Kingdom Come, is that his favorite subject — himself — gets a bit tiresome. But I think Jay-Z has an incredible amount of talent, so I can't wait to hear how this turns out: According to an article in today's New York Times, the CEO of hip-hop plans to release another album in early November, inspired by the upcoming Ridley Scott/Denzel Washington movie American Gangster.

That's less than a year after Kingdom Come's release, but apparently Jay was so moved after viewing the film that he simply had to head into the studio. But Jay-Z, who says his drug-dealing past helped him identify with the '70s-set tale of a Harlem heroin kingpin, isn't writing the soundtrack. His album will merely be released around the same time. For more details, read more

According to the article:

Following the underwhelming critical and commercial reception for his Kingdom Come CD late last year — and as Jay-Z grapples with whether to stay on in his post at Def Jam — the tie-in to a major motion picture gives him a chance to rebound strong and extend his reach to a wider audience.

At the same time, it could help Universal Pictures excite younger moviegoers, whom it will need to make money on a costly film with a troubled history. Though it’s not uncommon for films to be released alongside “inspired by” albums, it is rare for them to be recorded by a single artist, let alone by a major star who had no role in the movie.

I feel like "inspired by" gets slapped on a lot of mediocre soundtracks, but in this case, the phrase is truly an apt description and makes me especially excited to hear it. Apparently, Jay-Z has already recorded nine songs, each one related to a different scene in the movie. Maybe this unusual partnership will prompt the return to glory that Jay-Z fans have been waiting for since The Black Album. What do you guys think?

Honestly, the feel of American Gangster makes me think he's liable to take it back to the Reasonable Doubt and In My Lifetime days, and since I've been a fan since then, that's what I've been waiting for. If he can put together another album of STORYTELLING (what his big homie BIG was known for) as opposed to flossin', then it'll actually be BETTER if this album is a bit autobiographical. Tracks like "Friend or Foe" and "You Must Love Me" are proof of that.